
                                   Visual Tcl


 TABLE OF CONTENTS

   I. Preferences


 I. PREFERENCES

    Use Balloon Help
    	If this option is checked, balloons will help to guide you through
	the process of some creation.  They will appear if you hold your
	mouse over a particular area for half a second.

    Ask for Widget name on insert
    	By default, widgets are created with a name determined by vTcl.  If
	this option is checked, rather than creating a name when a widget is
	inserted, you will be prompted for the new widget's name.

    Short automatic widget names
    	This option makes widget names even shorter, using a sort of
	abbreviation method.  This option only matters if widgetnames are
	being created automatically.

    Window focus selects window.
    	Not sure what this does.

    Auto place new widgets
    	If this option is checked, widgets are automatically placed at the
	insertion point when a toolbar icon is clicked.  If this option is
	off, vTcl waits for you to select a point on any insertion widget
	before placing the widget.

    Use widget command aliasing
    	Setting an alias in vTcl creates a variable within the widget array
	that makes using widgets later on easier.  If this command is enabled,
	setting an alias will also create a command in the global interpreter
	for this widget.  So, if you gave an alias of 'FOO' to a new button
	you created, a command called 'FOO' would be created in Tcl.  You
	could then use that command to execute widget functions.  Like so:

	FOO configure -text "FOO"
	FOO configure -background blue

    Use auto-aliasing for new widgets
    	If this option is checked, widgets are automatically given an alias
	when they are created.  The name of the alias is based on the widget's
	class and it's order of creation.  So, if you created a new button,
	the alias might be called 'Button1'.  Or, a new label might be
	called 'Label3'.  vTcl will automatically choose a name for the
	widget and create the alias.

	If used in conjunction with command aliasing, this can become very
	useful.  When new widgets are created, they will automatically have
	aliases and commands associated with them, like 'Label1', 'Label2',
	'Button1', etc...  This makes using widgets within your program
	much easier.  Example:

	Button1 -command "Label1 configure -text [Entry1 get]"

    Use continuous widget placement
    	With this option checked, placing a widget does not cause the toolbar
	to uncheck the widget.  This means that after you've placed a widget,
	clicking your left button again will place another widget of the same
	kind.  You will continue to place widgets until you select the pointer
	icon from the toolbar.

	While using continuous widget placement, you can use your middle mouse
	button to grab widgets and move them around.  Note that clicking on
	the resize handle of a widget does not place a new widget even when
	one is checked on the toolbar.

	Note that this option does nothing if auto widget placement is turned
	on.

    Auto load compounds
    	With this option, you can specify a file to load everytime you start
        Visual Tcl.

        The file can contain compounds that you frequently use. A compound is
        a reusable piece of user interface containing tcl code as well. You
        can create a compound out of any widget in Visual Tcl. A complete
        toplevel may easily be converted into a compound and reused later on.

        The difference between a compound and user interface components like
        ActiveX's on Windows is that compounds are not shared. Everytime you
        insert a compound into a project, all the widgets that make the
        compound as well as the program code associated with the compound
        are inserted.

        Use this option if you frequently use the same compounds over and
        over. After you have started Visual Tcl, you can insert the compounds
        by choosing the Compound / Insert / User menu.